Life Lessons from the Gym #1 - You're on No One Else's Schedule
Training isn’t just about looking or feeling better. At the time I’m writing this, I’ve been in the gym consistently for 15 years and coaching for 8. That’s about half my life in the gym. The gym has taught me more about life than any class or course.
I’m going to start sharing some of these lessons learned in blog posts over the next several months. I thought about doing three in one post but as I’ve been writing I think I need more space to fully articulate what I’ve been thinking. So I’m going to do just one lesson per post. Hopefully this will resonate with someone out there.
Lesson #1 - You’re on No One Else’s Schedule
You’ve seen all the ads promising fast, effortless, and dramatic fitness results if only you’d buy a certain product or service. We’re wired to want things quickly and expect that this is the norm now. We live in the most technologically advanced time in history – I can order products and even groceries online and have them delivered TODAY. Amazon Prime is great, I use it all the time. It has just set some unrealistic expectations.
How many times have you seen ads for crazy crash diets or training programs? Just because an ad claims that someone used their product and lost X amount of weight or gained X amount of muscle in a certain (short) timeframe doesn’t mean that’s the norm. Ads are designed to be flashy and attention-grabbing. They portray this as normal and imply that if you aren’t moving that quickly you’re doing something wrong. You don’t see what happens 2, 3, 4 years down the road.
“I lost 40 pounds in 2 years and kept it off” isn’t flashy, but it’s exceptionally rare. Almost everyone who does a crash diet or loses a large amount of weight quickly gains it all back within a year. That’s not want anyone wants, but that’s what happens. Yo-yo dieting is much more common than successful dieting.
This mentality isn’t limited to crazy weight loss programs. I’ve seen athletes take up a sport, naturally excel, push harder and to higher levels of competition too quickly, then get injured and quit the sport altogether, all within a couple of years. Where exactly did that get them?
Nothing worth having in the gym or in life ever comes quickly.
I’ve never been athletic. But the one thing I have going for me is I haven’t quit. I’ve seen slow, sometimes painfully slow improvement for years. I’m still not a great athlete. There are high school athletes that are naturally stronger and faster and could run circles around me. But I’m still pushing forward. I haven’t “let myself go” even in the many times when life got in the way. I’m still moving forward 15 years later, even after many of the “gifted” athletes I saw growing up have quit and regressed.
The myth of Icarus still has something to teach us. Fly too high, too fast, and you’ll come crashing down. Life doesn’t usually reward those who only push hard for a short time, or push too hard, too fast. It rewards those who consistently do the right things day after day, month after month, year after year. Your daily habits make you or break you.
Whether you’re building a business, raising a family, or making a big life decision, you’re on no one else’s schedule. For example, just because someone built a business quickly and became a millionaire in their 20’s doesn’t mean that’s what will happen for everyone. You can start in your 40’s. Who cares? If it takes 10 years instead of 5, who cares? Comparison is the thief of joy. Apply this mindset to your own situation or experiences.
Invest in yourself. Investments take time to pay off. You might not see the results of the seeds you plant for years. But if you don’t plant them at all, they’ll never grow and bloom.
If you’re looking for a fitness trainer in the Mt Juliet/Hermitage/Nashville TN area, online fitness training, or just need some advice to get your fitness program started, contact me